Sunday, September 6, 2015

Tourism will boost GDP

KUALA LUMPUR: Tourism will continue to be a significant contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This industry is among the 10 that MCA has targeted to help steer the economy. Party president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said there would be a “golden 10 years” ahead for the tourism industry.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has estimated that the direct contribution from tourism to the GDP will increase from RM70.4bil in 2013 to RM115.4bil in 2024. The tourism growth would also see jobs related to the industry grow from 881,000 to 1,254,000 within the same period, said Liow.

On MCA’s efforts to promote tourism, Liow cited his recent talks with China Southern Airlines on direct flights from Guangdong to Malacca as an example.

This was in addition to plans to have the largest private cruise terminal in Malacca, said Liow, also the Transport Minister.

“MCA will optimise our relationship with China to woo more tourists to Malaysia,” he said when opening a conference themed “Map­ping 10 Economic Strategic Direc­tions” orga­nised by the party here yesterday.

The other nine sectors are mo­dern agriculture, neo-urbanisation, capa­city building (technical, vocational, education and training or TVET) and wood-based industries. The others are the Malaysia-China co-ope­ration, information techno­logy, small traders, financing and logistics.

The focus on these 10 sectors came under the MCA Transforma­tion Plan spearheaded by Liow when he took over the party’s helm in December 2013.

Liow said the party was working closely with the private sector, the community and government via the transformation plan.

On the country’s competitive edge abroad, he cited the furniture industry where Malaysia was one of the world’s top 10 furniture exporters.

He said MCA had plans to help lo­­cal furniture players partner with their Chinese counterparts to venture into the larger markets overseas.

Regarding capacity building or TVET as one of the party’s focus, he said by 2020, 1.3 million out of the 3.3 million job opportunities created under the Economic Transfor­mation Plan would be taken up by technical graduates.